CINCINNATI — Chris Archer sipped a cup of coffee and sat in a padded steel chair in front of his locker stall while some of his teammates began to pack their belongings in preparation for the season finale at Great American Ball Park.
Archer, who turned 30 four days earlier, was supposed to take the mound for Game 161 until the Pirates shut him down because of a lingering groin injury. Instead, he watched the extra-inning win from the dugout and began to reflect on his 27 starts, many of which he wished he could have back.
Only 10 of those were for the Pirates and the final five — including six scoreless innings at Wrigley Field in his final start — had him hopeful for what's next. Still, he let out a loud sigh between sips when thinking back to a season unlike any he's experienced in the major leagues.
"I’ll say this, I learned a lot in 2018 and I got a lot better," Archer told DKPittsburghSports.com. "The only way to learn and get better is to fail. I’m glad it’s over, for sure. I did learn a lot, so I’m not upset with the season. It sucks that the back of my baseball card shows, technically, the worst season of my career, but I learned so much."
That self-evaluation reminded Archer of a conversation he had with David Price nearly six years earlier. Price, then the Rays' ace at 27 years old, had just won the American League Cy Young Award after winning 20 games in 2012, when Archer asked how he could possibly improve. Price responded by telling the rookie he planned to gradually simplify his delivery each offseason for the rest of his career.
Archer didn't know the importance of such an evolution until this season, when he finished with a career-worst 4.31 ERA and 1.38 WHIP in 148 1/3 innings. He also averaged 9.8 strikeouts per nine innings, his lowest output since 2014. That came after he made his second career All-Star team in 2017, his third consecutive year of 200 strikeouts and 200 innings. He also made a league-leading 34 starts and had the seventh-most strikeouts in the majors from 2015-17.
That's the production the Pirates paid for at the non-waiver trade deadline when they sent outfielder Austin Meadows, pitcher Tyler Glasnow and eventually former first-round pick Shane Baz, a 19-year-old starting pitcher, to the Rays. The right-hander was under contract through 2021 and set to make only $7.666 million next season, yet he posted a 5.61 ERA in his first nine starts of 2018.
His slider, regarded as one of the game's top pitches, didn't have the same bite and his fastball command wasn't as crisp. Archer responded with 2.70 ERA over his next eight starts while pitching through an abdominal injury, including six scoreless innings with 13 strikeouts in a win over the Marlins in June. Then, after hearing his name in trade rumors for nearly three seasons, he was finally dealt minutes before the July 31 deadline.
Though a trade was expected, he wasn't prepared for the pressure that followed and struggled to adapt to a new league. With an announced crowd of 26,773 on hand for his Pirates debut, Archer gave fans a snapshot of what they'd see for the duration of August. He lasted only 4 1/3 innings with six strikeouts and four walks against the Cardinals. None of his five August starts lasted more than five innings, and he posted a 6.45 ERA during that span.
It wasn't until the turn of the calendar that he finally followed Price's plan. In addition to implementing a sinker and curveball, Archer ditched the windup and pitched only from the stretch during September. A plan to simplify yielded a 2.70 ERA in his final five starts of the season, four of which lasted six or seven innings.
"I finally felt settled," Archer said. "I felt like myself. I felt like I didn’t have to do anymore but just be me. They told me that from the beginning but still, we’re human, man. A lot of moving parts, but finally I simplified everything. I trusted [Francisco] Cervelli and pitched like myself."
Archer finished with a 4.30 ERA and 60 strikeouts to 18 walks in his 10 starts for the Pirates. His evolution isn't finished, either. He'll take at least two weeks off at the start of this offseason to recover from the lingering groin injury before turning his focus to 2019. The windup is unlikely to return, as Archer aims to simplify, much like Price did following that Cy Young season. There's also his new five-pitch mix and how he can complement his devastating wipeout slider.
Regardless of the end result, both Clint Hurdle and Neal Huntington expressed optimism for Archer's ability to return to form. They noted the effectiveness of his slider — the pitch had a 36.2 percent whiff rate and .227 opponents' batting average in 2018 — as well as an effective four-seam fastball.
"He is continuing to evolve," Huntington said last month. "The best ones do. If you ask somebody at 34 what they wished they’d known at 26, it’s going to be a ton. Chris is athletic and he’s going to continue to evolve. Certainly, we were expecting more tangible success and more surface-number success than we’ve had to date. He was, too. He’s a competitor and a very good athlete, very intelligent. We’re going to get this thing figured out."
That remark was made prior to Archer's final start, which delayed the Cubs from clinching a spot in the postseason. He struck out nine, his most since joining the team, and allowed only four hits. Upon splitting the four-game series, the team arrived in Cincinnati to finish the season, where Archer came to a conclusion that made him hopeful for a rejuvenation.
"One of my friends drove to Cincinnati to hang out for the day, and I was like, ‘Dude, I can’t believe I’m 30 and I’m still learning.’" he recalled. "That’s how this game is. Even Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, those dudes are still learning, too. It’s kind of scary because if I can put six months together that is Chris Archer, then I know I can do some special things."